20th Anniversary

Sailor Moon DVD Box Set 2

The Slip Case

Keeping with the style of the the first box this slip case also has the wonderfully glossy pearl-like sheen and the silhouette of Sailor Moon and Luna. The only obvious difference being the title of the box set and a pink crescent moon instead if the yellow one seen the first time around.

The design is modern, clean and stylish and looks great on the shelf next to the first box and other Sailor Moon DVDs. There is no problem whatsoever removing the DVD case from the slip case.

The DVD Case

Like the slip case, the DVD case follows the format set by the first box. It's a slip case, the width of two regular cases and holds the final four DVDs of the first Sailor Moon anime season.

The case opens and closes easily and the disks can be removed and replaced with ease.

The images chosen for the cover are quite nice, my personal favourite being the group shot on the front. I'm a bit unsure of the holographic foil used and am curious as to what they'll do style-wise with the following seasons, especially Sailor Moon S onwards, which uses cover art with complex backgrounds.

It is interesting how the set appeals to different tastes. If you like clean classy Sailor Moon merchandise you can display the DVDs in the slip case but if you prefer the fun colourful Sailor Moon collectables you can remove the slip case and display it as is. Here's a video I made of the case, box and disks.

The DVDs

The DVD disks feature the same artwork as their original Japanese individual release disks though they are pretty nice and feature the artwork used on the original laserdisks and DVDs.

The DVD menus though are a bit of a let down. While they are fast loading and very easy to navigate, as is usual with Japanese DVD releases of TV shows and movies the menus are static images with a slight bit of animation with music playing in the background. The images are taken from the opening credits or episodes are look very unprofessionally edited. If only they made the menus as beautiful as the live action DVDs.

On the plus side the music is very nice and changes for each menu and each episode has been cut up into heaps more chapters than expected so you can jump right to several different spots in the episode instead of fast forwarding from the opening title or midway point.

All of the openings and closings are included and are matched with the correct episodes they originally aired with (unlike the US Region 1 DVD box set from a few years back).

As is usual with a Japanese DVD release there are no English subtitles and only the Japanese audio though the plot is rather easy to follow even if you don't understand the Japanese language. Fans especially won't have a problem understanding what's going on.

Overall Opinion

This is a great release with just one or two taste issues concerning the DVD menus. The high quality remastered Japanese episodes have never been available for this cheap though, let alone collected in a box (with such a beautiful slip case!). I've bought it for myself, as you can see by my photos and don't regret the purchase at all.